FALL RIVER — Having heard the claim of the makers of electrolyte-enhanced sports drinks like Gatorade that they "recharge cells," Matthew J. Kuss Middle School eighth grader Andersch Charleus had to investigate.

Could Gatorade be used to charge an iPod?

Charleus found that the drink could, with an onion. So he plugged his iPod into a charging cable, with the USB end plugged into an onion.

And the size of the onion mattered. The bigger the onion, the more Gatorade it could absorb. It could charge it by "20 percent," Charleus said.

Kuss science teacher Sarah Chapin explained that Charleus and other eighth grade students came up with the ideas for their science projects while in seventh grade.

They formed hypotheses and performed research over the summer.

Between September and January, they worked on the final project. "It has to be something they're interested in," Chapin said.

There were about 50 science projects in total. Students stood in front of poster boards illustrating their findings, and discussed them during a recent science fair in the school's library.

Faith Cronister compared different remote controlled airplanes: one with a propeller on the nose, another with propellers on the wings. She was trying to figure out which model flew the highest.

She explained the Bernoulli principal: lift is achieved because the air that moves over the wing is moving faster and exerting less pressure than the air below a wing.

Cronister tested each plane three times. Because of its wing design, the model with the propellers on the wings achieved the highest ascent, Cronister concluded.

Eighth grader Todd Sanchez compared a trebuchet with a catapult, to see which could launch an object further.

Both were weapons used in medieval warfare, but Sanchez said he found a trebuchet to be more effective. It could hurl objects about two times farther than a catapult.

That's because a trebuchet has a heavy counterweight that swings downward, creating in upward thrust that propels the trebuchet's throwing arm and sling completely forward. It uses kinetic and potential energy.

Catapults, which have to be pulled back, have crossbars that stop the launching arm's forward momentum, were not built for distance.

"A catapult was made to break down walls," Sanchez said, and its crossbar wastes energy. A trebuchet "doesn't waste any energy."

Emily Silva's display was set up across from Sanchez's. Silva, who explained that she's always been fascinated by television shows that feature forensics and mystery crime solving, investigated a question on whether a DNA test could be completely and accurately conducted at home, instead of in a lab.

Unlike the TV shows, Silva's lab subjects here were not crime suspects. They included herself and her parents. All gargled a salt water solution.

Page 2 of 2 - Silva said her parents weren't too skeptical when she asked, "Hey guys, want to gargle salt water for me?"

"That was the easiest part," she said.

Then came a more difficult part. Silva added dishwashing liquid to the salt water that she and her parents gargled. She then had to create DNA profiles, and, using agarose, make the solutions into a gel. She then separated the DNA strands in that gel, with a magnetic field created by two metal rods.

In all, the home test cost Silva about $40 to carry out.

"My conclusion: It wasn't as accurate as I had hoped," Silva said.

Abigail Sherman looked at optical illusions, and wanted to see how age affected a person's ability to see optical illusions. She compared herself, her younger brother and her parents.

"There is actually a difference," Sherman explained. She found that with age came increased focus; the younger you are, the more easily agitated and less focused.

Cole Carmody compared different heads on lacrosse sticks: Warrior heads versus STX heads. He had anticipated that a Warrior head could throw a ball farther. "I was wrong," Carmody said.

He tested with five people, who threw the balls three times with each head. Those tests revealed that when thrown with a stick that had an STX head, the ball "travels faster and farther."

Kenzie Moore tested slopes and loops, such as seen on roller coasters, using a hose and marbles.

Katera James wanted to find out which shot provided more accuracy when throwing a basketball from the free throw line on a court. She said she found that a wrist controlled shot was more accurate than throwing the ball with "your middle finger on the central seam."

Though he is still too young to drive himself, Daniel Mello investigated a question of how hard it is to drive when cold. He collected data from a variety of sources and people.

"Being tired and cold does affect your reaction time," Mello said.

As for why he decided to investigate that question, Mello said, "I just decided we needed something that would help people."